ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I went to walk the kids out to the bus stop this morning and noticed water running into the street from our yard.  The sprinkler didn't run this morning, so I went to investigate.  We had a water line break leading into the house once before and it looked a lot like that.  Much mucking around in cold icky water followed.  Calling for a sub was inserted into the middle.  Frustrated tears were considered and decided against.  Helpful neighbors came to let me know it was their water I was turning off and not mine (oops).  It's been a long and interesting morning, but looking at the bright side, I think I'll use my extra time today to do a bit of sewing and catch up on RRCB. Step 4 is out and I have yet to finish step 3.  I was going to do it last night after Kurt got home from his trip.  36  hours in transit and counting.  He has to come back eventually, right?  People can't live at an airport indefinitely.  I'm almost sure of it. 

Waiting for Laundry

I would have been in bed a while ago, but Ryan let me know on the way back from the holiday shop that he was out of clean long pants.  He only has three pairs and it has been cold for four days now.  We are just not well prepared for that much cold around here.  Because I couldn't go to bed until the laundry made it into the dryer I went ahead and sewed down the edges of Midget Block 37.  Block 38 got finished on our last trip to Georgia, so here they are together, Imperial Fan and Garden Beauty. 

I've been taking a picture of me with each of the finished block. This one is my tired and grumpy look. I thought about looking happier for the photo, but I thought this did a better job of representing this moment in time. Hopefully the flight schedule will be nice to me tomorrow so I can get my happy face back.

Somebody Moved the Finish Line

I've been pacing myself.  Working hard to get everything done, but mentally planning for Kurt to be home tonight to help out.  A blizzard in Frankfurt foiled those plans.  It was long and complicated day of phone calls and changed plans, but to make a long story very short, I'm hoping to have a husband again tomorrow.  Really hoping hard.  I feel as if I've just gotten to the end of the race and put in that last little burst of steam to finish strong only to be told I need to go just a bit further.  Now that I think about it, after finishing the Miami Marathon, I realized that my finishing medal was broken.  I mustered up the energy to walk all the way back to trade it in, but it was the longest and most painful walk of my life, I almost gave up and resigned myself to a broken award.  I'm feeling like that now, but without the option of calling it quits. 
OK, enough of feeling sorry for myself.  Tomorrow is Colonial Day for Anna at school and she asked if I could make her an outfit.  I really didn't want to start from scratch, so I found a clearance dress in colonial hot pink.  I sewed an apron and bonnet to go with it though, and cover up some of the pinkness.  She's going to carry her lunch to school in a basket and pack period appropriate food.  Oh, that reminds me, I need to hard boil some eggs before it gets too late. 
The good news of the day is that there wasn't a lego practice today or any ice skating.  Anna had Girl Scouts, though she forgot about it and came home on the bus anyway.  I drove her back and my friend Meisje was nice enough to bring her home after.  I think she knew I was hanging on by my fingernails.  Sydney wanted to go back to school tonight to shop in the holiday shop.  She's been frantically doing chores all week to earn money to use to buy presents for everyone in the family.  She was so proud to be able to pick out just the right gift for each person.  They were doing stories and cookies after, but we headed home again instead.  I think they are all in need of a calm right now too.  We had cookies and milk at home which was enough to make them happy again.  I've tried cookies to make me happy again, but it doesn't seem to be working. 

MIdweek Muddle

Just back from ice skating (as always). Poor Ryan went straight from Legos to ice skating without ever getting to come home in between. The girls and I had some down time though and I used it to get midget block 37 prepped. It is called Imperial Fan and looks to me like a Dresden Plate variation. The pattern calls for 20 fan blades, but I could only get 18 in. It also wants lavender circle behind the fan, but I decided to leave that part out. I used a freezer paper template for each blade and then ironed the point before putting a basting stitch in the top to hold it down. I spent part of my two hours at the rink sewing the pieces together.  I'll tuck in the extra part at I sew applique it down, so far it is just pinned.

Word Play Quilts

Today is the day that Tonya's book Word Play Quilts comes out. I am a big fan of her free form letters so I thought I'd do a tribute with some of the word quilts I've made. I thought about making a nifty collage, but I just don't have the energy today.  I had the book in my cart at Amazon until I read on Bonnie's blog that she will be selling it along with her new book, Scraps and Shirtails II which will be out early next year.  Anyway, here are some of my word quilts.  Just think of the possibilities. 

Of course, I still have some word quilts in progress.

Tiny Tuesday December 7, 2010

Lots of things are percolating around on my "to do" list today.  In honor of Tiny Tuesday, I pulled out a Midget Block.  This is number 36 and it is called (for obvious reasons) 4H.  It is paper pieced in four sections. 

For some reason, the pattern showed extra seams in the middle of the white sections. I left those out though, so there were only 28 pieces instead of 33.  What did you work on today?

No Self Control

So much for my thought of putting the new Accuquilt dies away until Christmas.  While sorting though the string drawer looking for neutrals I spent a little time sorting the different colors of scraps.  Because there was too much blue to fit into the blue jar, I "needed" to use some up.  The string scraps were the perfect size to try out the new 60 degree diamond die.  One of the new project I'm thinking about starting next year is a monochromatic scrap challenge.  One color each month with a scrap related project of some sort.  I'm still in the planning stages, but I'm thinking blue for January, red for February and green for March.  I don't think I can come up with enough colors, so maybe a few months can be combination months; green and red for December, red white and blue for July.  Like I said, it's still in the thinking stages.  It might be a fun way to use up some scraps.   So while mulling this over, I tried out a blue crumb star.

Happy Mail

Happiness does come in the mail.  I was rushing around  this afternoon doing some shopping.  and dashed in just in time to get the bus.  Therefore, I didn't see that there was a package waiting for me on the front stoop.  Look what I got in the mail!  The Christmas gift I ordered for myself -- surprise.  The 3.5 inch tumbler isn't out yet, but I got a drunkards path and a diamond along with an extra mat and a holder.  Now I want to go cut something, but I'm off to ice skating again (of course)  so it will have to wait.  Do you think I should wrap them up and put them under the tree?

My Glamorous Life

I slept in today.  All the way to 7:30.  It felt glorious.  I couldn't mow the yard until at least 9 though, it is Sunday after all, a day of rest.  Instead I got the kids rounded up stripping beds, throwing down laundry and tidying upstairs.  I told them I would buy them doughnuts if they did a good job.  I am not at all above bribery. I only got the front yard mowed before the mower ran out of gas and then it started to rain before I could fill it up again.  I can't think of any better sign that I was not meant to mow the back yard today. 

After that it was off to ice skating.  There was only one practice today for Anna so that didn't take too long.  We came home for lunch and then dropped Anna off for her Girl Scout Christmas caroling.  In between those things I kept working the string blocks through.  Strings blocks are nice in that they don't take a lot of concentration which makes them easy to work on in bits and pieces.  Pick up for caroling was at Marble Slab which required a stop in for ice cream of course.  Sunday is pizza night and the kids requested CiCis.  There was just time enough for showers, jammies, and bed.  It was all nicely relaxing compared to yesterday's choreographed driving tour of the county.  I think I need to make up a quick power point for Anatomy tomorrow, but other than that I think an early night is in order.

Plodding Along

Miraculously, I managed to get everyone to their respective activities today at the appropriate times. They even had all the right stuff. I had a little notebook with lists and phone numbers and gate codes and a car full of presents, snacks, robots and skates.  I wasn't sure it was all possible given the number of time conflicts involved, but with a little help from our OM team mates it all went off without a hitch.  We ended up back home in the afternoon with a couple of extra kids for play dates and then lost Anna when she went to go see a movie with her friend.  Fortunately the kids all think scrambled eggs and toast is a perfectly acceptable dinner, and we had a nice early night. 

I thought I would collapse as soon as the kids were in bed, but I decided to get started on the next step of the mystery quilt instead.  I am forcing myself to include lots of variety in my string blocks, but it is hard to do.  There is a certain safety in white on white or cream on cream.  I'm working in batches of 5 so that I can string piece and still get some blocks finished along the way.  I'm never patient enough to do huge sessions of chain piecing without wanting to see something finished come out the other end.